Newsletter #132

November 18, 2000

Greetings Accumulators!

This poor computer is slowly dying, "slowly" being the operative (or
non-operative, actually) word here. He Who Is The Light Of My Life is
building us a new computer system, and is in the process of transferring
all our files, so this is a lucky day for me - I can get a newsletter out.
That's if the system doesn't crash while I'm doing it. Poor hard drive!

We did the Triple Pier Expo in New York last weekend, and were visited by
the lovely Diane Dunne, one of Those Fabulous Dunnes. So nice to meet an
Accumulator face to face! Speaking of The Pier Show, having always
considered it a bellwether for the market, I made a point of noticing a few
trends.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HERE'S WHAT I OBSERVED
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A few categories of collectibles that seemed dead or slumping in the past
year have suddenly perked up. One example: World's Fair memorabilia (hear
that, you guys up in Ferndale, NY?). It was hotter than hot this time
around, with 1939 New York, 1964 New York, and 1933 Chicago leading the
pack. In the category of costume jewelry, the really high end stuff is
attracting notice, while the middle level things just languish in
showcases, and the lower end things can't be given away. This is really as
it should always have been, but it took everyone a little while to figure
it all out, what with anything made of bakelite being priced sky-high,
whether it was junk or a thing of beauty. Prices have settled now, and
that's a helpful thing. Vintage fashion is strong indeed, with
less-than-pristine offerings being, surprisingly, snapped up along with the
quality garments. Good purses are flying off the shelves! Anything fifties
is still strong, as is Arts and Crafts furniture, lighting and accessories.

HEY, IT WORKED FOR THE TY COMPANY, DIDN'T IT? DEPARTMENT
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Not to mention the makers of Tickle Me Elmo and, before them, Coleco and
their Cabbage patch Kids. It's called creating a market by creating a
shortage. All of us can remember parents rushing the stores, begging to
buy Elmo at any price. And, how about the Ty Company telling retailers
they'd only be able to get twelve of each new Beanie baby? Or announcing
that they'd "accidentally" sewed nine arms on about three thousand octopi,
which made them "special" and, somehow, "more collectible"? (Blame it on
all those highly motivated sweatshop seamstresses). Now comes the tale,
more than six weeks before Christmas, that there's a shortage of chips to
power all those smart new toys, the ones that "learn" things and become
more personalized the longer you have them. I suppose this will result in
the usual humanitarian behavior of store employees (like the year that
Toys-R-Us employees bought all the Elmos on the shelves before the doors
opened, and then sold them to hopeful parents and ten times the retail
price) and other speculators, who will make the shortage become reality.
As we've all seen, greed is a powerful thing. As long as our society is
willing to support marketing schemes that bring out less than the best in
everybody, why not give your kid one of those new Diva Starz by Mattel?
Children will be encouraged to pull the dolls' hair in order to hear them
scream, or leave them in their pajamas after sunup, so they'll complain.
Nice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU RAT
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Congrats to Mickey Mouse, who is 72 years young today. He was born on
November 18, 1928, with the release of "Steamboat Willie", the first
animated talking picture ever. Willie was a different rodent then than he
is today. He looked much more like a rat, and he was a lot more
mischievous than the fine upstanding squeaky clean mini-mammal of the
contemporary Disney Corporation. In fact, the first attempts at
merchandising the character resulted in some way too realistic-looking
European toys, with long pointy noses and big teeth. They actually
frightened children, so their production was halted. These early rarities
sell on today's market for megabucks.

I was fortunate enough this summer to visit Disneyland not once, but twice,
in the company of my dear friend Phil Rossetto, screenwriter and artist
extraordinaire, who took me to the various Millenium celebrations and
provided amazingly knowledgeable narration. At the conclusion of one show,
a water spectacle with blinding pyrotechnics, a paddlewheel steamer rounded
a bend, filled with colorful Disney characters, and piloted by a
black-and-white Steamboat Willie who, Phil confided to me, was actually
being played by a young Asian woman. Ah, progress!

Accumulators, this has been fun! I feel as if I've gotten a message past
the guards and out into the free world. HWITLOML promises the new system
will be up this week, so my next missive to you may very well be a breeze,
with no re-boots, no lost text, no crashes...you know. In the meantime,
have a glorious Thanksgiving Day, if you're in the US. For those of you in
the rest of the world, have a great week. Happy hunting!